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[Trailer removed at producer's request.]
No stranger to controversy, The Brown Bunny's Vincent Gallo is about to stir up a whole lot more. Gallo plays the lead in
Jerzy Skolimowski's Essential Killing, in which Gallo plays Mohammed - an Afghani Taliban fighter - on the run from Allied forces.
No stranger to controversy, The Brown Bunny's Vincent Gallo is about to stir up a whole lot more. Gallo plays the lead in
Jerzy Skolimowski's Essential Killing, in which Gallo plays Mohammed - an Afghani Taliban fighter - on the run from Allied forces.Anyone care to wager how this will play in middle America? Check the trailer below.Captured by the US military in Afghanistan, Mohammed is transported to a secret military black site somewhere in the Eastern Europe. When the armed convoy he is riding in plummets off a steep hill, Mohammed finds himself suddenly free and on the run behind the enemy lines, among a hostile, snow blanketed forest. Relentlessly pursued by an army that officially does not exist, Mohammed must constantly confront the need to kill in order to survive.
This is the guy from those cheezy vodka commercials, yes?
I don't think Gallo's ever done any vodka ads, no. He's the director of The Brown Bunny.
If the vodka ads you're think of are the Smirnoff ones with the guy on the dog sled, well THAT guy - believe it or not - is our very own Swarez. Really.
Why so dismissive of "Middle America", Todd? Maybe Middle America (not one myself, mind you) just don't like the idea of paying to watch movies by old Polish guys treating our soldiers like THEY are the bad guys, while the Taliban who just blew up a dozen soldiers gets the Rambo treatment? Of course, I'm sure you would never think of it from that perspective, you being too cool for those ignorant, racist, small-minded primitives in "Middle America" and all. Just saying. And the last I heard, Canada had some soldiers in Afghanistan, too, huh? What if some old Polish guy was making a movie about the Taliban blowing up your countrymen and then going all Rambo on them? Bet you wouldn't be willing to pay money to see that too, or promote it, huh?
This looks pretty terrible. Gotta love Gallo though.
Todd, good measured response to someone who clearing signed up to make a one-time comment (hence "onetimer").
Obviously, the concept for this film hits a nerve. I'm not searching for other films or stories, for that matter, that make you root for someone who should be our 'enemy' but in the role of the protagonist. Actually, there was a recent example with Clint Eastwood's twin Iwo Jima movies.
This one looks competently made as a thriller but I wonder if it will at any point speak to the perspective of this Taliban or if it just assumes -- like many action films -- that we already know his motivation and functions purely as an action film. It would be interesting if that is just the case. So the the audience is squirming in their seat knowing that they are being manipulated into caring for someone 'on the other side'.
Imagine if there was a "Band of Brothers" mirror series which examined the German side for example. Not that it would ever be made but the original series hints that it would work conceptually. At the very end of the series when the Americans watch a German unit demustering they realize that their own comradeship and journeyed was also shared by their enemies.
the Taliban fought alongside Rambo in part 3.
just sayin...